�ֲ���ý Theater’s production of Everybody sold out every performance at Gannett Theater last week — waitlists at the door, eager audience members finding out they’d gotten seats  five minutes before curtain — and the room earned that anticipatory urgency. Associate Professor of  Theater Courtney Smith, the scenic and projections designer, built a world that wrapped around you rather than played in front of you. It was immersive and a little disorienting, in exactly the right way.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ 2017 play, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, takes a risky leap of faith in inviting its cast into a game of role swapping. Before each performance, the cast members playing “Somebody” draw lots to decide who plays Friendship, Cousin, Kinship, Stuff, Everybody. The �ֲ���ý production also added a few other roles to the lottery, Strength, Beauty, Mind and Senses.

All these different roles, memorized by everyone and shared by the whole cast, could lead to dozens of different possible versions in any given production. The performance you witnessed would have been the only time it happened exactly that way.

Director and Associate Professor of Theater Tim Dugan shaped an ensemble that held that strangeness without flinching. For Adam Joseph (AJ) Matos ’26 of Springfield, N.J., and Noah Skinner ’26 of Sugar Land, Texas, the play was part of their senior theses, working with a cast that had to be ready for anything. As lighting designer, Skinner lit a world that had to feel ancient and urgent at once. There were many big questions on hand, including the nightly guessing game of who would play who? The answer? Everybody.

The cast includes: Mo Al-Jabry ’28, Graham Austin ’28, Aidan Bergeron ’27, Julian Boutin ’28, Jack Fisher ’29, Connor Gerraughty ’26, Josie Kim ’27, Jenny Liu ’29, Emily Maffezzoli ’29, Samantha Manogue ’26, Ruby Marden ’27, AJ Matos ’26, and Patrick Stronski ’27.

The following were also involved in the production: Costume Designer & Director — Rebecca Armstrong; Associate Costume Designer — Marcel Nagy ’28; Sound Designer — Emily Duncan Wilson (Brandow Family Fund Guest Artist); Associate Directors — Kate Norry ’28, Nicole Rossilli ’27, Elaine Wang ’27; Stage Manager — Sarah McOsker ’28; Associate Stage Managers — Queenie Tsang ’28, Colin Kenny ’28; and Associate Projections Designer — Evan Cox ’26.

Carolina González Valencia, associate professor of art and visual culture, was tired of the ways that she saw representations of women like her mother on the screen. She was weary of the ways that she did not see her mother Beatriz on the screen. She hated seeing dynamic people like her mother — who is funny, creative, and opinionated — portrayed as quiet and humble domestic workers. Her mother has a “big personality,” and González Valencia, who is accustomed to using art and film to reach an audience, wanted to create a narrative that captured the complexity of her mother’s experience — as a domestic worker in the U.S., but also as a full and complex person. 

The result is How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps, which is in final post-production this month, and will be complete by the end of the year. A recent grant from Unbound Philanthropy gave the final push to bring the film toward completion. In its early stages, though, the biggest obstacle was finding how to authentically tell a story featuring domestic workers that felt new … and true. 

When González Valencia began the process, she sat down to talk to her mother, Beatriz Valencia, about her work. In these early conversations, she saw her mother shrink into a prescribed role. There didn’t seem room for her mother’s complexities to show up in a film when she approached it as a documentarian. She also was aware of “the complicated waters of having this power of representing another person.” González Valencia began really thinking about how to approach this project — meant to represent a domestic worker in the U.S. — collaboratively. 

González Valencia has frequently drawn on collaboration to access authenticity. In an installation in Beirut in 2018, she posted a question (“Are you afraid you’ll keep moving forever?”) on flyers that hung across the neighborhood where she was in residency and invited responses via text. Her 2019 “Video Postales” featured photographs and videos shared by artists to accompany lines from González Valencia’s writing. The result was surprising and beautiful — accessing something more true than she could have created alone. Tapping into her collaborative instinct as well as her background in performance art, González Valencia engaged her mother in some improvisatory exercises. 

“Let’s pretend I’m a journalist and I’m here to interview you and you’re a very, very accomplished person,” González Valencia said to her mother during the early stages of the film. “What do you want to be very accomplished at?” Her mother immediately responded that she would want to be a famous writer. What emerged was a central fictional character around which the collaborative genre-bending film took shape. 

As soon as the fictional writer emerged as a character that Beatriz played, her mother spoke more freely and truthfully to her daughter. “That fiction allowed us to be more honest,” González Valencia said.

González Valencia likely already knew that this film was going to push against boundaries. Documentary is a complicated genre that sometimes poses as simple or straightforward. 

“I was really interested in pushing what we can do as a documentary. It’s a form that needs to be questioned because it comes from a legacy of a very colonial way of looking at the ‘other.’” González Valencia was not traveling to a new land to represent another culture, but she knew that she could still fall into the patterns of misrepresentation if her mother was not empowered as a collaborator.

González Valencia notes that other artists have blurred genres — drawing from fiction to access the truth. Author Claudia Rankine, for example, is creating a sort of “collage” in her writing, which has served as a model for González Valencia in her art. She also cites two Belgian filmmakers as influences: Chantal Akerman, who explored her own relationship with her mother in genre-blurring documentary films, and Agnès Varda, who blurred fiction and fact in her documentary films. Models like these allowed González Valencia to collaboratively create a documentary about her mother as a domestic worker, who is playing the role of a famous writer in parts of the film. 

As the semester wrapped up, González Valencia traveled to Splendor Omnia just outside of Mexico City, which she described as a dream studio. This is her first feature-length film, so the experience at Splendor Omnia will not only allow her to finish the film in a very high-end way, but it is also offering González Valencia an education. “It’s kind of like a school to me,” she said. 

How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps is the result of what happened when González Valencia and her mother dared to let go of the factual in favor of the truth. Of course deciding upon an approach for the film was only the very beginning. González Valencia’s project has received a slew of grant support. The production of the film has been made possible by support from sources that include the Sundance Film Festival, Abundant Futures Fund, and the LEF fund. The most recent $50,000 grant from Unbound Philanthropy enabled the film to move into post-production.

González Valencia has high hopes for the impact that her film can make. Primarily, she wants to contribute to ongoing conversations about narrative structure, domestic work, and immigrant rights. 

“I don’t believe in the single story,” González Valencia said. And when you are part of a group that gets represented by a superficial, single story, the stakes are higher. “I’m interested in being part of the conversation that complicates it, that shows that there is not one story.”

González Valencia and her mother are certainly pushing back against a single narrative created “from the perspective of pain and trauma.” González Valencia hopes that this film can show that “when we talk about immigrants, when we talk about domestic workers — we are people full of joy and laughter.” Especially now, she hopes the creativity and joy of the film — which includes a musical sequence —  will “help people to feel closer.” 

Shortly after Courtney Smith joined �ֲ���ý in the fall of 2024 as an associate professor of theater, he floated an idea for a production that was both over-the-top ambitious and absolute catnip to his colleague Sally Wood, a visiting lecturer in theater who was trying to decide what play to direct in the fall of 2025.

His suggestion would require help from an unprecedented number of campus partners and doing due diligence to be compliant with local, state and federal regulations — and test Schaeffer Theatre like nothing else in its 65-year history.  What Smith had said to Wood was: “You know what would be really awesome? Metamorphoses.”

Wood is used to pulling things off. When she’s not in the classroom or in one of �ֲ���ý performance spaces, she’s working with professional theaters and actors all over the region, including Portland Stage Company and the Theater at Monmouth. But the 1998 play, an omnibus interpretation of Ovid’s Greek mythology written by MacArthur Award winner Mary Zimmerman, has one foundational issue that makes it seriously complex to pull off. There’s just one set. But it’s a swimming pool. As much as Wood was thrilled that Smith was game for this project,  she said would not have suggested it. 

“Just because it’s too much to ask,” she said, sitting on the stage this fall as the dress rehearsal was about to get started for what would be a sold-out run of Metamorphoses encompassing Halloween weekend. “It’s so big.”

To do it right, you need to build a pool on a stage that can handle, say, 22,000 extra pounds in the form of water, as well as performers who don’t mind getting wet. That means lots of laundry. Major technical challenges. Because of all Metamorphoses requires to bring it to life, Wood said the play is rarely produced except in academic settings. It can be done without the full soaking experience, say with kiddie pools or some sort of reflective surface, she said. 

“And I think it still works. But there’s magic in the water. Real magic. When people see it, it’s like, they always remember it. And I don’t know of any other play that has that kind of stamp.”

+Click here to learn more about what Graham Austin was thinking during this scene

The actors are in and out of the pool throughout the play, with one character drowning in a shipwreck, along with his crew (�ֲ���ý dancers in this case), another conducting a seduction in the water, King Midas hanging out poolside with a drunken Bacchus, and even a god’s offspring undergoing modern therapy while spinning across its surface in a round pool toy. 

The first time Wood saw Metamorphoses was in New York at the Circle in the Square, with Zimmerman directing (the writer/director would go on to win a Tony for that production in 2002). “I remember just not breathing,” Wood said. “I’ll never forget just not breathing, for like an hour and a half, and being so sad when it was over.”

“I’m convinced it’s the water,” Wood added. “The play on the page is beautiful and really good, but there’s a trance. It’s crazy. There’s a literal transformation that happens once you get in there.”

And it happens for the actors. “I loved getting in that swimming pool,” said Graham Austin ’28 of Basalt, Colo., a likely theater major, who like the more than a dozen student cast members played multiple roles.  As Phaeton, son of Apollo, he is the character getting therapy in the pool, and Austin played the part with the gusto of Sean Penn as the iconic Spicoli of 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High. “It was a highlight of every time I did that play. Just overall, fantastic time in that thing.”

Engineering the pool into being was a major feat that started in August, about a week after another theater and production veteran, Mike Quinn, started his new role at �ֲ���ý as technical director. He and Smith, who served as production manager, lighting and projections designer, and faculty advisor for students on the technical side of the production, are splitting some of the duties formerly performed by longtime �ֲ���ý theater leader Michael Reidy before his recent retirement from his position as senior lecturer in theater and managing director of Theater and Dance.

A Maine native who spent 14 years in scenery construction and technical design in New York, Quinn had been working in Portland since 2023 with various venues and organizations.  At the dress rehearsal, Wood joked that Quinn might not have taken the job if he’d known what his first month would be like, but Quinn said he’d been warned. “He [Smith] said, you’re going to have to build a pool if you take the job.”  

Getting the specifications right  — no one wanted to capsize the Schaeffer stage — was key. In the end, the depth of the empty pool was 24 inches, but the water itself couldn’t be that deep. 

“It is not a 16th over 16 inches,” Quinn said. “As prescribed by the structural engineer.” 

“We had to task a fairly wide group of people to make sure that as an institution we were checking boxes and crossing our ‘t’s and dotting our ‘i’ s,” said Chris Streifel, �ֲ���ý’ director of capital planning and construction. “There were all kinds of different codes and building ramifications that we had to work through structurally.” 

Because the audience needed to be able to see into the pool, Schaeffer also had to be reimagined as a venue. Risers were constructed in the wings of the stage in lieu of the regular seating . This limited the audience size somewhat, but made for an intimate experience; during particularly splashy scenes, audience members in the front row might have gotten a little damp (although crew members whisked through between scenes, wielding mops to put the water back into the pool). 

Getting the chemistry of the water just right kept Quinn busy as well. At first the team hoped to keep it fresh with herbal and natural remedies, but after draining it over October break, they opted to add chlorine, since there were many bodies moving in and out of it during rehearsals. But not too much. “We did not want it smelling like the Y,” Wood said. At ABC Pool and Spa Center on Lisbon St., one of the workers groaned when Quinn stopped by; queries from �ֲ���ý had apparently become that much of a regular thing. “I think they were like, ‘Oh my God, why don’t you guys just get it together?’” said Wood.

+Click here to learn more about what was going through Eirene Furr’s mind as she acted in this scene

The pool was both a weird quirk and an inspiration for Eirene Furr ’28, a rhetoric, film, and screen studies major from Washington, D.C., who plans to focus on playwriting. She came to �ֲ���ý after four years at the Chicago Academy of the Arts and has been in many productions, but none like this. “It’s not like an August Wilson play where it’s very much grounded in reality,” Furr said. “You have to live in this world where there’s gods and there’s love, and there’s betrayal, and there’s curses, and it makes for a very challenging experience.”

Like most of the cast, she played multiple roles, most prominently the role of Alcyone, whose husband, King Ceyx, is lost at sea. “I’m lucky because I only had to go about knee deep in the pool,” Furr said. “But I know people who fully dived in and in each scene had to be completely wet.” 

Included among them was Jenny Liu ’29 of Suzhou, China, who plays Myrrha, daughter of King Cinyras, cursed by Aphrodite into falling in love with her own father. She’s tossed around the pool in a particularly intense scene. “I was so excited when I heard that we were actually going to be in the water,” Liu said. “And I actually enjoyed it. It was warm.” 

The everybody-in-the-pool experience brought the cast closer together, Furr said. “Because when 15 people are running around the stage with towels and having to dry off and change, and there’s a whole laundry system going on, it makes it chaotic but it also makes it really, really fun.”

+Click here to learn more about what was happening for Jenny Liu in this scene

For Smith, seeing this kind of student experience is a large part of what drew him to �ֲ���ý during the hiring process. “What I think that the department really does well is creating the space for students to learn the craft and do their thing.” That might be a common enough sounding goal in the liberal arts, but at �ֲ���ý it felt like a reality. “I really felt it. It was really obvious to me,” Smith said.

Though when Smith arrived at �ֲ���ý last fall, he did develop a wish list of things he wanted to improve. Reidy had been a master of keeping old resources and materials going but it was time for upgrades. “Some instrumentation was dated back as early as the ’70s,” Smith said.  It was held together by tape, or worse. “It had, oh gosh, it had asbestos wiring. I think most of it was probably from the ’80s, and that’s just not equipment that we use anymore.”

Rachel Wray, senior director of corporate and foundation relations at �ֲ���ý, worked with the George I. Alden Trust, based in Worcester, Mass., which generously provided a $175,000 grant for the necessary theater tech upgrades. �ֲ���ý contributed more funds, and now all three theaters — Schaeffer, Gannett Theater, and the Martin Andrucki Black Box Theatre — have new and improved equipment, including four big moving lights that were vital to making Metamorphoses glow, and a central control board (an ETC Ion Xe lighting control console) that can function as a true teaching tool. Some describe it as the guts of the whole operation.

For Smith, it was essential that �ֲ���ý graduates who want to work as professionals in the world of stage, lighting, and theater, be trained on current equipment. “Students in my classes, including Introduction to Digital Media, and in lighting projection design related courses, are learning on the tools they’ll see in the real world,” Smith said. “That was a huge lift to the program to be able to do that, and it was all because of that award.”

Furr’s first �ֲ���ý production left her with a deep appreciation for her new community. That includes the responsive audience. 

“It’s easy to kind of compartmentalize your work as an actor, and kind of separate it from yourself,” Furr said. “Part of that is healthy and it’s good, but it can sometimes make you unaware of the amount of work that you put in. So it is definitely very rewarding to hear people come up and say how much they liked the show. It makes me very proud of all the work that the entire ensemble put in and the directors and then each and every stage hand and the theater directors and the sound designers. Really, everybody put their maximum amount of effort in.”

At their sold-out show at Portland’s State Theatre on Oct. 20, Big Thief, a Brooklyn-based indie-folk band, had a message for �ֲ���ý: “Thanks for all the love,” said Buck Meek, guitarist and vocalist. “Sorry we couldn’t make it yesterday.”

This was followed by an explosive cheer from the audience, which included a lot of �ֲ���ý students. Then lead vocalist Adrianne Lenker chimed in. “It’s been amazing to watch what you’ve been doing,” she said. “Thanks for playing our songs.”

What led up to this moment? It was the result of more than a year of student creativity, community, and persistence that began as a simple solution to a problem in �ֲ���ý’ music scene. 

During the fall of 2024, Audrey Cole ’26 of Minneapolis, Minn., Jonah Yaffe ’26 of Dallas, and Stella Gould ’25 were looking for a way to showcase musicians on campus who weren’t part of existing bands. Cole and Yaffe are the co-presidents (or “emperors,” as they call themselves) of the �ֲ���ý Musicians’ Union this year. BMU is an active and large organization; they regularly put on concerts, connect musicians, and collaborate with the student-run radio station and literary magazine, snaggletooth. If you ask most �ֲ���ý students, they can likely rattle off a list of BMU founded bands. Blue Razz Sassafras, Don’t Teller, Cole and Yaffe’s own band, The Lot Lizards, often perform in house basements, in local bars, and even at school-run events, like last year’s Gala. These bands are the club’s bread and butter, but Cole knew there were more musicians at �ֲ���ý, with a lot to offer, but no regular band to play with. She’s met some at BMU general meetings and encountered others socially.

“There are so many people I talk to who don’t even go to the meetings but who want to perform and play with a band and just don’t have the capacity,” says Cole.

Here was the solution: a one-night-only collaborative concert, where anyone could sign up to join a band for a day and take part in an all-day outdoor show. There had been single bands playing on Mount David before, but this time they were looking for it to expand to a collective concert They needed something to capture the essence of �ֲ���ý and get people excited. 

Enter Big Thief, a Brooklyn-based indie-folk band, fronted by hyper-specific and poetic lyricist Adrianne Lenker, with an extensive acoustic and electric catalog. The band had played Portland’s State Theatre in Feb. 2023, drawing a packed crowd that included �ֲ���ý students and alumni. “�ֲ���ý has a big crunch element,” Cole says, referring to the large sector of the campus population who can be seen on any given day wearing Blundstones as they carry their cross-country ski bags to their environmental justice class. “So people are definitely listening to Big Thief. I went to see them freshman year, and a million �ֲ���ý kids and �ֲ���ý grads living in Portland were at that concert. So it was evident they were big here.” 

The first Big Thief tribute concert at �ֲ���ý took place in October 2024 on Mount David. It was a cold October afternoon, but dozens of students showed up in puffer coats and beanies, staying past sunset to sing along to the songs they knew so well, their phone flashlights waving in their hands. “It was so special,” Yaffe says, “People still tell me it was their favorite night of the year. And then this summer I was looking back on photos and really wanted to commemorate it somehow. It just felt like something that should keep happening.”

When planning this year’s show, they considered other groups, like maybe a Beatles or Wilco night, but nothing seemed like it could quite capture the same energy. So Yaffe decided to take things a step further. He created an Instagram account () dedicated to the project, posting photos and video of last year’s performance every day, along with hoping to catch the band’s attention, and maybe get them to show up to campus. They even offered some food recommendations from Commons, glimpses of a logo for the event, and a video from Mount Katahdin.

“Buck Meek ended up following me, and I actually got in contact with their team,” Yaffe says. “They gave us special permission to listen to their new album early, sent us signed vinyl and posters, and I was emailing with their manager for a while.”

This year’s Big Thief tribute concert  was scheduled for October 19, the day before the band’s tour date in Portland, and it was even bigger than last year’s. “People we had never met before showed up,” Cole said, “Like so many people.”

People showed up to Big Thief’s show the next day, too. About 2,000 of them. So it was very rewarding to hear Meek shout out �ֲ���ý live on stage, but Yaffe says that the Instagram account means a lot more to him than a connection to the band. “I like that I can scroll back on it and see all these absolutely amazing memories from this amazing night,” he says, “It’s like a public scrapbook. It’s great.” 

Like @bates_plays_big_thief, the new tradition of Big Thief night has gone beyond just a love for the band. It’s a chance to come together, meeting with friends and strangers on Mount David to create something. It is a marker of community, and a reminder that even during midterms, and the time when days get shorter, there is still space for spontaneity and joy in the outdoors. It’s about the feeling of being in a crowd where everyone is singing the same words. It’s the type of evening that makes �ֲ���ý feel small in the best way.  

Earlier this year Golf Digest was looking for college golfers to star in a video that would showcase how a new Adobe tool could be used by lovers of the sport.

There are 1,300 men’s and women’s college golf programs in the U.S. but typically the talent pipeline for pro golf — and its preeminent publication — runs through powerhouse NCAA Division I schools such as Oklahoma State, Stanford, and Wake Forest.

For this video production though, Golf Digest turned to Division III and �ֲ���ý College. To demonstrate the creative reach and user-friendly qualities of Firefly, Adobe’s generative AI tool, Golf Digest followed members of the �ֲ���ý men’s and women’s golf teams as they explored its potential applications to build idealized golf holes.

Shot in Lewiston and Auburn on a single day in May, the result is a that debuted this month, starring many �ֲ���ý golfers adorned in Bobcat-merch, the Martindale Country Club, and campus locations that included Pettengill Hall’s Perry Atrium.

�ֲ���ý landed on Golf Digest’s radar through connections with two �ֲ���ý golfers. The first is a current student, Charlie Weinman ’27, a politics major from Rye, N.Y., whose father, Sam Weinman, is the publication’s digital editorial director. 

But Sam Weinman’s connection to �ֲ���ý predates his parental one. For Golf Digest in 2018, he profiled a teenage golfer, Sam Gerry ’24, who at that time was by drawing on his own experience. Gerry went on to attend �ֲ���ý and play golf. Over that time, Weinman followed his progress. Then, when Charlie Weinman was first considering �ֲ���ý, he got a campus tour from Sam Gerry.

During Golf Digest’s brainstorming sessions for the Adobe project, the idea of using a small-college team came up. Weinman said his colleagues “knew that Charlie was having a great experience at �ֲ���ý.” They included Stina Sternberg, an executive with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports who leads video and branded content for the publication and who ultimately made the call to select the Bobcat team for the Adobe project.

Watch the Golf Digest video:

Filming day was May 20. Production started at �ֲ���ý’ historic home course, Martindale Country Club in Auburn, then shifted to campus, where the golfers used Firefly to imagine, design, and create realistic visual images of their own golf holes — all in front of a production team capturing their every move.

The weather was familiar Maine “spring” weather: cloudy skies, north winds gusting to 20 mph, and a temperature that barely reached 50 degrees. The day’s first scene focused on one of the course’s signature holes, the par-3 9th hole, a precipitously downhill hole that plays 180 yards from the white tees.

From a storytelling standpoint, it was the perfect place to begin. Since the course opened in 1921, the elevated tee has felt magical. “Climb to the very crest, keep your eyes on the ground until you reach the summit, and then turn around and drink it in,” exhorted the Lewiston Sun Journal in its review of the new Auburn course. (Today Martindale Country Club is owned by Nick Glicos, whose son Evan graduated from �ֲ���ý in 2024 with an economics degree.) 

Atop the windy hill, the film crew assumed their positions on the 9th tee. Down below, the �ֲ���ý golfers were gathered on the green. “Action,” said supervising producer Michael Sneeden, and three handheld cameras captured video, and a drone tracked the action from above, as the golfers completed a cinematic walk up the steep hill. There, they met Derek Duncan, Golf Digest’s architecture editor and host of the podcast Feed the Ball. 

With cameras rolling, Duncan offered a historical primer on golf course design. He explained the history and legacy of Charles Blair Macdonald (1855–1939), who studied classic U.K. holes and brought their strategic brilliance to his U.S. designs. “Macdonald had a set of what he considered his ‘ideal’ golf holes, and he worked to design courses from those holes,” he said, referring to Macdonald’s concept of “template holes,” basic layouts that could be tweaked and adapted for any terrain or setting, but that would always be playable, fun, and challenging for all golfers.

“That’s what you will do with Adobe Firefly,” Duncan said. “You’ll use inspirations from holes that you’ve played, some from your own hometown courses, and from your travels. Think about what you like and don’t like about those courses.”

He asked them to look down at the 9th green, which has Beech Hill Road passing right behind the hole. The hole’s design reflects strategic course design: To help the golfer keep the road behind the green out of play, there’s a generous, safe landing area in front of the green.

“You don’t want a road to be part of a hole’s strategy, unless you’re talking St. Andrews,” Duncan told the golfers, referring to the famed Road Hole, where a road behind the green and along the right side of the fairway becomes a critical part of a golfer’s decision-making.

From the 9th tee, the production team and the �ֲ���ý golfers moved to the 12th, a straight 484-yard par 5 where a right-handed golfer could slice the ball into the Little Androscoggin River that runs alongside the fairway. 

As Duncan walked the 12th fairway and talked with the �ֲ���ý golfers, the 16-member production team — camera and audio operators, drone specialists, producers, directors, and executives — moved in a loose orbit around them. The video team came from IMG Media, based in London, with freelance professionals capturing audio.

Duncan asked what made the hole challenging. “It’s just so straight,” said one �ֲ���ý golfer. As they advanced down the fairway, team captain Will Phillips ’25 of Portland, Ore., took note of Duncan’s approach to the course, which was instructive beyond golf. 

“It’s the way he walks a golf course: He walks slow, and he takes time to look at all the undulations in the green, to look at where a good miss might be off the tee.” (A “good miss” is a shot that misses the golfer’s intended mark but doesn’t find deep trouble.) “He takes his time to gather in what is all around him before he makes any remarks or gives his opinion.” 

For Phillips, the morning exercise at Martindale turned the typical golf experience inside out. Like other individual sports, golf demands an inward focus. But like only a handful of other sports, such as skiing or running cross country, golf’s playing venue changes dramatically with each match, which tests the golfer’s ability to stay focused, block out distractions, and make smart decisions under pressure.

“We just came off our season,” explained Phillips. “Practice, practice, practice, and play, play, play. You work to get comfortable with yourself in your own head. You find little techniques to stay on it mentally.”

But as Phillips walked the Martindale golf course with Duncan, he realized that to view the course as a creative course designer, he needed to step outside “the player mentality and into the designer mentality, and visit the game of golf without having to be completely locked in, dialed in, and focused on yourself.”

His teammate, Henry Ehrlich ’26, also from Portland, Ore., was similarly struck by how Duncan invited the group to shift their thinking. Duncan asked the golfers to imagine how any given hole might be different, and how that would affect someone’s experience. 

“When you’re on the course as a golfer, it’s such a mental sport. It’s so easy to get in your own head,” Ehrlich said. “Thinking about the way the course is constructed and how everything’s laid out isn’t something that’s always at the top of your mind.”

“You gave us gold. You blew all of us away with your engagement, enthusiasm, smart questions and answers, and, yes, design skills.” — Stina Sternberg, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports

For example, said Ehrlich, when he’s on Martindale’s 9th tee, “minus wind, I’ll hit the same club no matter what. I know where I’m going to be, because I’d rather be short in that collection area than be long.” (That’s an example of the “good miss.”) “When you realize that the hole is designed for that purpose, that it’s how you’re supposed to play the hole, the architecture makes more sense.”

At its heart, a liberal arts education teaches students to ask the question “why,” and that played out even during the experience of starring in an advertising product. Mehar Nijjer ’27, a psychology major from Chandigarh, India, said that her mindset on the tee would typically be focused on tactics. “Hit the ball to this target, avoid that hazard.”

Now, she has “why” in mind. “I’m thinking much more about strategy and the architect’s intended path. I ask questions like, ‘Why is this bunker here? What is the best angle of attack to this green, and why?’ It’s no longer just about hitting a good shot but about hitting the right shot for the situation, based on a deeper understanding of the hole’s design.”

Her teammate Isabelle Meltzer ’28 of Summit, N.J., agrees. “A big part of scoring in golf is being good at course management — taking into account shot shapes, risk vs. reward for certain shapes, and where to place balls on the green. Walking the course gave me more things to think about when it comes to where I want to be on a green or fairway in a competition.”

After the morning at Martindale, everyone headed back to Perry Atrium in Pettengill Hall where the �ֲ���ý golfers broke into groups and used what they saw and heard from Duncan to take a crack at designing their own golf holes using Adobe Firefly. 

During a break in the afternoon shooting, Michael Sneeden, the project’s supervising producer, was asked what the �ֲ���ý students were bringing to the project. He used the example of a Venn diagram, how a series of circles might explain a video project that uses volunteer student talent.

Sneeden rattled off the circles of need. One, of course, was being top-flight golfers “at a great college.” Then being available and willing to give their time, the ability to “take physical direction as we move the cameras around,” and, finally, the ability to speak on camera, “thoughtfully, respectfully, and intelligently.” 

Like other Adobe products such as Photoshop and Illustrator, Firefly enables users to create and enhance visual content. It uses generative AI, which means users can produce images, including text effects and other visual attributes, by typing a text description. The �ֲ���ý students also used Firefly Boards, a collaborative tool to help with the overall ideation.

Phillips’ team took a crack at designing a variation of the par-3 12th hole at Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters. First, they used Adobe Fresco, a free drawing tool, to make rough sketches, then used Firefly to make the hole look real, with lush greens, swaying trees, and a vivid water hazard fronting the green. They didn’t touch the iconic green, but instead imagined new tee boxes. “We gave them four new options, differing yardages, which creates more or less of a battle with that traditional angle across the green.” 

Meanwhile, Nijjer found inspiration from across the country, designing a dogleg-right par 5 that features stunning redwood trees sometimes found on northern California courses like Northwood Golf Club in Monte Rio. “We felt this provided a unique and scenic element that is not often seen in golf course architecture,” she said. “A key element was ensuring the hole was accessible and engaging for golfers of all abilities.”

That’s what the Golf Digest team wanted to see. “The engagement from the �ֲ���ý golfers comes a lot from the fact that they’re so genuine,” said Sneeden.

Since 2021, NCAA student-athletes can profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) through endorsement deals and other business ventures. At the Division I level, this means millions going to top athletes.

“They’re making a ton of money, which means they often already have media training by the time they get to college,” said Sneeden. 

What the Golf Digest team found at �ֲ���ý was golfing excellence among the men and women on the golf team. “They’re going to be professional in their fields, just not professional golfers. They gave us their honest opinions, not something manufactured.”

Or as Stina Sternberg put it in a thank you note to the golfers: “You gave us gold. You blew all of us away with your engagement, enthusiasm, smart questions and answers, and, yes, design skills.”

Jay Burns recently retired from �ֲ���ý Communications and Marketing after a 32-year career that included many titles and ended with senior editorial director. He edited �ֲ���ý Magazine for much of his career at �ֲ���ý and will continue to contribute to the college’s publications as a freelancer.

The �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art opens a major show on June 6, Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing, featuring a visual adventure through the long career of the artist and illustrator. It runs through Oct. 11 and includes 149 objects that deftly capture Steadman’s artistic practice. 

Over the last six decades, Steadman has carved out a career by presenting his uncanny, unique perspective on everything from the Kentucky Derby in the early 1970s — alongside his longtime collaborator, the late journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson — to political figures and literary treasures like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Originally slated to come to �ֲ���ý in 2020 but delayed because of the pandemic, the exhibition will fill the whole museum.

 “It’s a vast selection of work by this iconic artist,” said Samantha Sigmon, the assistant curator at the �ֲ���ý Museum of Art who has curated the exhibition. “It will provide an opportunity for everyone — from longtime fans to newcomers —to engage with Ralph Steadman’s incomparable works and experience the unique mind and defining style of such a pivotal creative in American culture.”

Steadman, who is 89 and lives in the United Kingdom, will not be in attendance at the opening, but his daughter Sadie Williams arrived in Lewiston early to oversee the installation and be part of the opening festivities on June 6; the reception is 7–9 p.m. 

“On an educational level, this exhibition is nothing less than a history of culture spanning multiple generations and topics — politics, literature, gonzo journalism,” said Malcolm Hill, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty. “It’s exciting to be hosting it here at �ֲ���ý.” 

While And Another Thing pays tribute to Thompson and Steadman’s future-defining meeting and their famed collaborations, the exhibition leads viewers on a journey through a widely varied artistic practice.

“It’s essential to have some form of expression within your reach that gives you something to dwell upon,” Steadman said. “But if I feel something is important, it may not be important to someone else. I don’t want to change anyone’s mind in an aggressive way. I hope they see my drawings and it makes them think about why I drew it and what opinion I am trying to express.”

“And Another Thing allows us to engage audiences with an exhibition that shows Steadman’s artistic evolution from his roots to the artist who continues to flourish, innovate, and be in demand at 89 years old with interest from brands such as Nike, Harley-Davidson, and Supreme, with whom he collaborated in the last three years,” said Williams. 

Williams also serves as the director of the Ralph Steadman Art Collection. The collection was founded in 2010 to promote Steadman’s work and ensure his art is exhibited and reproduced to the highest standard, working closely with the artist on exhibitions, collaborative licensing, and design projects. These collaborations include work with the Alexander McQueen couture fashion house, urban fashion brand Vans, and the Royal Shakespeare Co.

Political commentary is a staple of Steadman’s work and the exhibition includes illustrations of President Donald Trump and former Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Jimmy Carter. The works demonstrate his astute political satire that meshes their traits with the scandals that plagued their presidencies.

Steadman’s use of the high-contrast chiaroscuro technique in “American Melodrama” lampoons a gallery of presidents, ranging from Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan, who are depicted as theater performers on stage. The caricatures, their countenances exaggerated with insincere smiles, demonstrate Steadman’s razor-sharp satire.

“Steadman is well known for his direct and visceral drawing style and for changing and amplifying the face of satire through his illustrations,” said Andrea Lee Harris, the exhibition co-curator.

“His art challenges us, teaches us, and alters how we see the world. Showcasing Steadman’s genius, skill, and imagination, the exhibition offers viewers a glimpse into the artist’s creative force. He has given us all a great gift and raised the bar for the generations following in his footsteps. Steadman’s inspired exhibition will delight both die-hard fans and uninitiated audiences eager to learn more.” 

On display are his illustrated editions of literary classics such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island; Kurt Baumann’s Dozy and Hawkeye; and the inventive books Steadman authored such as I, Leonardo, The Big I Am, The Little Red Computer, That’s My Dad, and more.

“I don’t think people realize how big some of the artworks actually are,” Williams said. “Usually the art is reproduced in books, magazines, and newspapers at an eighth or even a 16th their actual size, so it’s a completely different experience to stand in front of an original. You can see the audience really absorbing the works and taking it in.”

Beautiful works from The Gonzovation Trilogy, Steadman’s collaboration with documentarian and filmmaker Ceri Levy about extinct and endangered birds and animals, sit alongside his more experimental collections such as Paranoids, caricatures of notable figures from history, entertainment, and politics that Steadman created by reworking Polaroid photographs. 

Steadman explained, “What you’re doing is pushing around a light-motivated material which is still in the process of change. It’s as if you started off with a perfect blueprint of someone which you could then alter according to your needs.”

Distorted images depict famous writers and musicians, including David Bowie, Elton John, Bob Dylan, and Dolly Parton.

Vintage Dr. Gonzo, a life-size bronze sculpture by Jud Bergeron, inspired by Steadman’s drawings of Thompson, will also be touring with the exhibition.

Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing is accompanied by a full-color, 207-page publication of the same name. Special hardcover and softcover editions will be available. 

Following the presentation at the �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art, the exhibition will continue its tour at the Barry Art Museum at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. It will also tour the West Coast through fall 2027.

Open-water fishing doesn’t begin until April 1 in Maine, but that didn’t stop four Bobcat lacrosse seniors from angling for a fishing-inspired sportrait last winter that pays tribute to one of their favorite ways to spend time together.

Before their seasons start, �ֲ���ý student-athletes step in front of the camera on media day for standard head-and-shoulder portraits. When that’s done, they have time to create playful, metaphor-rich images that showcase their team spirit, personal interests, and �ֲ���ý friendships.

This spring, we saw recreations, imitations, and invocations of famous paintings, rock ’n’ roll, Maine pride, juggling, and more. Here are 13 of our favorite spring sportraits — each one casting a line between sport and self.

Connected Cats

The friendship between sophomores Sienna Pietrasiewicz ’27 of Norton, Mass., and Isabella Albro ’27 of New York City extends far beyond the softball diamond.

“We are always connected, even when we are not on campus together,” Pietrasiewicz says. “Bella’s the first person I text or call when anything happens in my life — good or bad.”

Whether in cleats or cozied up at home as �ֲ���ý roommates, the two spend hours chatting, laughing, and leaning on each other through the highs and lows of the season — and of life. “I know she’ll always have my back,” Pietrasiewicz says. “And I’ll always have hers.”

Oar Values

Merrill Doherty ‘26 of Hanover, N.H., and Olivia Smith ’26 of Lafayette, Ind., channeled the solemn faces and upright posture of the figures in Grant Wood’s iconic American Gothic — but with an oar instead of a pitchfork, and with a wink toward the grit that typifies �ֲ���ý rowers.

A lifelong Hoosier, Smith says she was drawn to the painting’s Midwestern themes of hard work and community — values that echo on the team and in her friendship with Doherty. 

“Our interpretation is a tribute to the values that unite our different backgrounds,” she says. “On the team we say that there are many routes up a mountain. They all include community and good old-fashioned hard work — but with an oar rather than a pitchfork.”

The two first met as first-year walk-ons, complete rowing novices. They bonded through early-morning practices, a dizzying glossary of rowing terms, and the steep learning curve of a new sport. What began on the water has become a deep friendship built on shared growth, trust, and a sense of humor.

Their assistant coach, Catie Flynn, helped bring the final vision together. But the chemistry? That’s all theirs.

As Maine Goes

The original Maine flag is unmistakable — the pine tree, the lone star, the simplicity.

And though a statewide vote last fall failed to re-adopt the historical design, the old flag has fervent fans, including these four baseball players from Maine.

“I think it’s fair to say we all prefer the old Maine flag to the colonial one,” says Gibby Sullivan. “We all feel pride in being from the state. There’s a special bond I feel with every Mainer I meet that has gone to �ֲ���ý.”

There’s more than a shared area code binding this group. They’re all from Cumberland County towns: Swift and Sullivan from Yarmouth; Carlisle and Hobbs from South Portland. 

Swift and Sullivan “have always been friends,” says Sullivan. “We were Little League all-stars together before playing together at Yarmouth High School.”

Hobbs and Sullivan, meanwhile, played travel ball together since they were pre-teens. “I’ve known Hobbs longer than anyone else here at �ֲ���ý.”

And Carlisle? “We met on the beach in Scarborough during my senior year of high school,” Sullivan explains. “I told him I was heading to �ֲ���ý, and he said he’d love to play there one day. Funny how it all worked out.”

Battle of the Bands

Outfielders and teammates Grace Householter ’25 of Manhattan Beach, Calif., Sophie Garber ’26 of Wellesley, Mass., and Maya Lee ’27 of Wayland, Mass., brought rock ’n’ roll energy to their spring sportrait.

The trio channeled shared experience as outfielders into a coordinated pose that ended with Garber sliding into the frame “like a rockstar,” says Householter.

In Garber’s first year at �ֲ���ý, she and Householter were paired as “sisters” in the team’s returner–first-year mentorship tradition. “And all three of us play outfield together — the best positions! — so we obviously had to take a picture together,” says Householter. “We always try to make our sportraits super fun. They’re a chance to show who we are as a team: always full of energy.”

Friendship also hit a high note for these women’s lacrosse juniors, from left, Clare McGeever of Berlin, Conn., Amanda Edge of Washington, D.C., and Lauren Wong of Walpole, Mass.

“Amanda loves to sing, so it just made sense for her to take on that role,” says McGeever. “We all sing a lot when we are together — we joke about forming an a cappella group.”

The sportrait allows their off-the-pitch (but not off-pitch!) selves to shine. “�ֲ���ý allows us to explore different aspects of who we are,” says Edge. “As varsity athletes, we’re still able to pursue other interests, like music.” McGeever and Edge have sung in the college choir; Edge takes piano lessons, and Wong plays as well.

Balls in Play

What started as a way to connect with a young child turned into an unexpected skill for Ben Miller ’25 of Scarsdale, N.Y. 

Two years ago, he learned to juggle while working at a pediatric physical therapy clinic. “Some of the patients needed some distraction while getting treatment, and one patient loved to juggle, so I decided to learn.”

That same lighthearted spirit showed up during some downtime during the men’s lacrosse sportrait session, when Ben spotted a trio of brightly colored lacrosse balls and decided to put his skills to the test. “I thought it would be a cool photo.”

Coast to Coast

Lacrosse seniors Javi Werner and Cooper Lance channeled Nacho Libre energy and perhaps a bit of East Coast–West Coast. Werner is from Brookline, Mass., while Lance is from San Diego, Calif.

“Javi and I have been good friends since freshman year,” says Lance. “We recently dressed up as Nacho Libre characters for Halloween, so we thought it was only fitting to continue that for our sportrait.”

It’s Glow Time

These three juniors are roommates, teammates, and friends who enjoy “getting ready together” for all things in life, says Zoe Schaedle of Philadelphia — whether for a night out, class, or a preseason sportrait.

“We came up with the idea on a whim,” says Raegan White of Duxbury, Mass. “I had brought makeup to the shoot, and when I pulled it out, we just thought, ‘Let’s pose with it.’”

While makeup isn’t part of their game-day routine, feeling positive and confident is. “We definitely believe that you play how you feel,” says White, “We always support whatever makes each other feel good before a game.”

Hot Bats

The sophomores on this year’s baseball team are “best friends,” says Keagan Ryan ’27 of Salem, N.H., “so we decided to try to be creative during sportraits this year.”

The campfire suggests the video game Fortnite that “we have all played,” explains Ryan. The bats represents the flaming logs, and the gloves are rocks. 

The scene of the sophomores surrounding a campfire captures how “we are a very close class and have all worked very hard to get where we are. We are all grateful that �ֲ���ý has allowed us to create these lifelong friendships.”

From left, Kenny Carlisle of South Portland, Maine, Luke Yoon of Honolulu, Hawaii, Theo Zacharia of Manhasset, N.Y., Henry Kolani of Tarrytown, N.Y., Tyler Canna of Rye, N.Y., Keagan Ryan of Salem, N.H., Nolan Hobbs of South Portland, Maine, and Henry Prince of McLean, Va. 

Here Come the Sophs

These four sophomore softball players came together to pay homage to the Beatles’ Abbey Road, released 56 years ago this September.

“We all listen to the Beatles, and we are definitely influenced by our parents’ music tastes,” says Emily Kennedy of East Hampton, N.Y., who counts “Martha My Dear,” “There’s a Place,” “Rocky Raccoon,” “I Will,” “Norwegian Wood,” and “Good Night” among their favorites. 

In the iconic album cover, Paul McCartney holds a cigarette and is famously barefoot. For these softball players, “we made sure we included the four softball essentials: an outfield glove, a ball, a bat, and an infield glove,” Kennedy says.

“We are super close, we support each other, and we have fun on and off the field. I don’t know who I would be without them.”

Lacrossing the Delaware

Emanuel Leutze’s painting Washington Crossing the Delaware presents a compelling metaphor — teamwork, leadership, shared purpose — for Bobcats looking to create an all-in sportrait. 

Last season brought us the first-year swimmers recreating the painting; this spring, the juniors on the women’s lacrosse team took their turn. “We feel that it represents us as a strong, powerful unit,” says Clare McGeever ‘26 of Berlin, Conn. 

Use your mouse to grab the slider (or swipe on a phone or tablet) to reveal more or less of each image.

Brewster Burns for �ֲ���ý College

Cleverly, they had their �ֲ���ý flag appear to flap in the wind by having a teammate, Lindy Child ’27 of Bethesda, Md., hold the flag up, just out of the frame. 

To play Washington, they turned to Raegan White ‘26 of Duxbury, Mass., taking advantage of the goalie’s helmet and gloves “to make her stick out and distinguish her as our own commander-in-chief.”

In fact, it was White who shared the idea in the team’s grade group chat. “Everyone was on-board, literally!” says McGeever.

“We really love each other and the team so much,” she adds. “We have so much fun playing lacrosse with each other and have grown close over the years. We are entering our senior year with the same crew since our freshman year, and we wouldn’t change it for anything.”

Bass Bros

These four senior friends love lacrosse and they love bass fishing. But it was a last-minute call to put the two together for a sportrait, says Colton Curtis ’25 of Charlotte, N.C. “You’d think after 4 years we’d have more ideas, but using the fishing rod as a prop was definitely a last-minute decision.” 

“Fishing with each other and our teammates is one of my favorite ways to relax,” he adds. “Living so close to the Androscoggin River and other bass-filled lakes and ponds has definitely been one of my favorite parts about �ֲ���ý.”

Curtis has been fishing since he was a little kid. “Being from North Carolina, it’s just one of those things that I seemed to always end up doing with my dad and friends. Quinn’s dad is also an avid fisherman, so it’s definitely something we all enjoy.”

The image is more accurate than you’d think. “I had a jig tied on with a real hook that we put into an orange, which Ben bit into,” Curtis explains. “It was pretty funny trying to figure out how we could rig it up so Ben could bite into it and we could get the rod to flex but not actually hook him.”

Oarigin Story

Another popular spoof for Bobcats is Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, which a few rowers took on this year.

In this re-creation, Nate Oh ’28 of New York City, plays the role of God, which makes sense since he’s a cox, but there were other practical considerations. “Small guys cannot hold the big guys, so we went from there,” he says — which is also how a big guy, Mason Choiniere Barr ‘28 of Longmeadow, Mass., became recumbent, as Adam.

Oh showered praise on his teammates. “Sam Williams is an absolute unit and a great friend. He always brings a smile to the team’s face.” Van Loo, a captain, “is a stud who leads by example and has a great presence on the team.” 

And Choiniere Barr is “a dirty bowman who will set the boat despite the immense pain he endures,” says Oh. (Translation: He’s a tough rower at the front who keeps the boat balanced and steady.)

Meanwhile, Oh has a lot of face time with Davalos, who rows “stroke seat,” closest to the cox, setting the rhythm for the rest of the crew and literally face to face with the cox. “Through countless hours of grueling practices, we got to know each other.”

Supported by a $10,000 grant from the Davis Projects for Peace program, Axelle Tougouma ’27 of Fada N’Gourma, Burkina Faso, will pursue a solar-powered irrigation system and deliver agricultural training for Burkinabé women refugees in Ivory Coast, aiming to combat food insecurity and foster economic independence.

Each year, Projects for Peace provides funding to 125 or more student leaders to implement innovative, community-centered, and scalable responses to the world’s most pressing issues.

Tougouma’s project supports women refugees living in Ouangolodougou, an Ivory Coast city 18 miles from the border of Burkina Faso, a conflict-ridden country in recent years.

Millions of Burkinabè, mostly women and children, have been displaced within their country, and nearly 190,000 people have sought refuge in neighboring countries, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Tougouma’s own father, who owns a business selling agricultural inputs, had to relocate his farm due to the conflict.

Tougouma’s irrigation project seeks to support and empower Burkinabé women in Ouangolodougou as they deal with economic hardship and food insecurity. But, she says, “you cannot just build an irrigation system. You need to study the soil so that you implement the best system that works with the kind of culture they have and also the kind of crops they are willing to have in the future.”

Once installed, the system will provide the women of Ouangolodougou with access to water and the ability to more efficiently grow food, both as a means of subsistence and a source of revenue. “A system of irrigation provides the opportunity to those women to have constant activities going on instead of waiting for the rainy season,” says Tougouma.

Working remotely over the summer, Tougouma will guide her project partners in the region, including an agricultural engineer based in Burkina Faso who is leading the irrigation system build-out, scheduled to be completed by August. 

“My way to contribute to peace is through humanitarian action.”

Ultimately, Tougouma hopes her project creates a more resilient community. “My vision is just empowering the whole community and giving that financial autonomy to those women so that they can thrive, the family can thrive, the children can thrive.”

At �ֲ���ý, Tougouma, who is a double major in mathematics and economics, has learned to combine her analytical skills with her passion for community service and engagement. In Assistant Professor of Economics Kyle Coombs’ “Data Science for Economists” course, for example, Tougouma learned to apply her economical knowledge to a real-world community engagement project completed in conjunction with the city of Lewiston.

“�ֲ���ý gives you that opportunity to explore community services through your major,” Tougouma says. 

In 2023, through a United World College GoMakeADifference grant, Tougouma worked with an organization that employs internally-displaced women in Burkina Faso in soap-making jobs. In 2022, she co-led a project that provided displaced women and children with essential goods, mental health activities, and skills training, such as crocheting and soap-making.

“My way to contribute to peace is through humanitarian action.”

In this reel, six seniors reflect on mentorship, discovery, and the thrill of sharing big ideas at the 2025 Mount David Summit, the annual celebration of student academic achievement.

At this year’s summit, held April 4 at its traditional location in Pettengill Hall, 256 students presented 130 research posters and participated in 26 academic talks or panels. 

You’ll also see and hear how �ֲ���ý students show up for each other. “One of my best friends is doing a math presentation on Ulam words,” says Max Olson ’25, and English major from Beverly, Mass. “Do I know what an Ulam word is? Not really. Am I going to see the presentation and find out? Absolutely.”

These are the seniors in this reel, created by �ֲ���ý multimedia producer Theophil Syslo, plus a bit about their senior research:

• Aneeza Ahmad of Sharon, Mass., traveled Maine’s farmland to amplify the voices of Wabanaki, white, and Somali Bantu farmers.
• Lydia Frew of Norwich, Vt., presented research how dance and movement practices can deepen our understanding of the self through internal sensory experience.
• Nimco Jama of Hargeisa, Somaliland, investigates how wild mustard plants may adapt to climate change through “heat memory.”
• Max Olson of Beverly, Mass., explores race and identity in The Lord of the Rings in his English thesis on literary bigotry.
• Ananya Rao of Bedford, N.Y., brings climate policy to life through her internship on offshore wind with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
• Brandon Villalta Lopez of Nicaragua and Costa Rica studies the neuroscience of memory suppression and the power of smell in triggering what we forget — or remember.
• Fiona Wilson of Barnstead, N.H., uses wildlife camera traps to explore how coyotes, foxes, and fishers adapt to urban life in Lewiston–Auburn.

During a Q&A at the Mount David Summit, �ֲ���ý’ annual celebration of student achievement, someone asked how the seven studio art majors were feeling as they moved the fruits of their year-long projects from the relative privacy of their Olin Arts Center studios to the public space of the Museum of Art.

Every year, works by seniors are featured in the Senior Thesis Exhibition at the museum, mounted professionally and ready for viewing until Commencement.

If they were nervous, the seniors didn’t show it. Miryam Keller ’25 of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, was ready for the necessary culmination of all that alone time in the studio over the course of her senior year.

“I feel like my works will now have their own relationship with other people,” Keller said. Her mixed-media work features materials collected from her beloved Maine coast. “To me, a piece feels successful if somebody is able to emotionally connect with it. I guess it speaks to empathy.”

Avery Lehman ’25 of Portsmouth, N.H., spoke of the possibility of visitors finding common ground in her mixed-media thesis project, a set of cotton quilts that incorporate photographic images, fleeting and intimate, during her final year at �ֲ���ý.

Her hope? That viewers “find footing for their own memories in these pieces,” she said, an invitation, via highly personal artwork, for individual interpretation.

“Ultimately, they’re going to look at it and they may feel something entirely different than what I intended — but that’s kind of the beautiful part of it.”

Each year, two �ֲ���ý faculty members advise the seniors as they develop a cohesive body of artistic work. This year’s advisers were Carolina González Valencia, associate professor of art and visual culture, and Susan A. Dewsnap, lecturer in art and visual culture. Michel Droge, a visiting lecturer in art and visual culture, works with the seniors as the exhibition’s lead preparator.

Titled Under the Parachute, this year’s exhibition is open through May 24. While the work is the thesis, every senior also has to write an artist statement. These are excerpted below, illustrated with another annual �ֲ���ý tradition, portraits of the artists in their Olin Arts Center studios created by Phyllis Graber Jensen. 

Lizi Barrow — A Momentary Reprise

For Lizi Barrow of Winchester, Mass., who is also a major in environmental studies, the act of painting is an act of inheritance. 

Her work presents a lineage of women — her grandmother, her mother, and herself — linked by love, memory, and the quiet intimacy of ordinary moments. Her work reimagines family photographs taken by her grandmother, Nina Ravenscroft Norton Smith, of Barrow’s mother during her lifetime. 

“I engage with my grandmother’s photographic representations of moments in time, my mother’s retelling of these moments, and my own childhood memories to visually combine the memories and lived experiences of three different generations of women.

“My paintings depict ordinary moments of stillness, where the safety and comfort of Home lulls the subjects to sleep. I invite my viewer to take part in these peaceful moments, offering a momentary reprise from the chaotic world outside of the frame.”

Miryam Keller — Cycles of Salt and Memory

In her mixed-media compositions, Miryam Keller of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, who is also an earth and climate sciences major, starts with ocean water collected from places along her beloved Maine coast — such as Higgins Beach, Pemaquid Point, and East End Beach — to capture rhythms of nature and memory.

Each piece begins as a circle of ocean water on mat board, into which she introduces ink and crushed minerals. As the salt water evaporates, pigments settle, salt crystals bloom, and the paper distorts.

“Using water, my work bridges our emotional and physical experiences in the landscape. I aim to create an environment of unstructured observation and stillness that invites presence and reflection. Through each individual atmosphere, I hope to draw attention to our relationship with bodies of water as a point of connection and communication.

“I am endlessly mesmerized by the depths of the underwater world, and as I go deeper into its mystery I find my internal world mirrored back.”

Avery Lehman — Memory, Patched and Pieced

For Avery Lehman of Portsmouth, N.H., memory lives in fabric and photography. 

From photographs taken with from black-and-white film, Lehman printed cyanotypes — blue-toned prints often used in artwork — onto pieces of cotton canvas, from which she created quilts. The quilts depict fleeting intimacies from her final year at �ֲ���ý — friends holding hands at the beach — while challenging the expectation of perfection in feminist craft traditions.

“Using these methods, I construct or mend textiles to protect the love and care that the images hold. The gestural aspects of the pieces may allow viewers’ own memories to find footing somewhere in the work. The unfinished details of this work imply a continuation past the exhibition date as I acknowledge that this effort will persist throughout the course of my life — and that the longing to freeze a moment will never cease.”

Erin McCarthy — A Vessel Transformed

Erin McCarthy of Bangor, Maine, creates ceramic forms that begin as vessels — but they rarely stay that way, hence the name she gave her works, “Metamorphose series.” “My journey with clay has always been driven by a desire to blur the lines between functional forms and sculptural abstraction.”

“These pieces represent a pivotal moment in my artistic growth, where my personal vision reshapes the traditional techniques I’ve learned. I chose the traditional coil-building technique, constructing vessels that organically transitioned into abstract shapes [and] allowed the clay to guide the process.

“Beginning as traditional vessels, the pieces gradually evolve into abstract sculptures, mirroring my own artistic transformation. I also aimed to challenge the viewer’s perspective, highlighting the transformative power of a shift in viewpoint.”

Alex Provasnik — Stitched Disruption

Alex Provasnik of Arlington, Va., who is also a chemistry major, is well-known at �ֲ���ý for her functional ceramics. 

But for her senior thesis, she unraveled those expectations. She drilled and perforated her ceramics, then entwined the holes with embroidery thread or yarn, turning traditional pots into hand-stitched landscapes.

“Threads and fibers engulf some holes while others remain unthreaded, providing glimpses of the inside and a reminder of the labor in creating and stitching each one. This work not only steps away from these practices’ utilitarian roots but uses the fibers to interrupt the functionality of what otherwise would be a usable pot.

“The grid provides structure and an environment for geometric patterns to emerge and evolve. The process of creating these works is very rigorous and time-consuming yet also rhythmic and meditative.”

Lila Schaefer — Where the Body Meets the Room

Lila Schaefer of Northampton, Mass., creates sculptures and watercolors that combine hard-edged geometry with soft, anthropomorphic forms, evoking the interaction between the internal self and the physical world of things we expect to see everyday, like a lamp. 

The works — layered with aluminum wire, polyfill, fabric, and wood — form an abstracted domestic space: a surreal living room where emotion permeates design. 

“These sculptures challenge the pursuit of efficiency and control in our built environments, advocating instead for a more open, unpredictable approach to human experience. The ‘skin’ acts as a crucial boundary, symbolizing the interface between the internal self and the outside world.

“The materials I use reflect my interest in merging soft, handmade elements with more functional aspects of design [and] the organic, playful qualities of these pieces resist the idealized perfection of contemporary design.”

Danny Zuniga Zarat — A Divine Kind of Ache

Danny Zuniga Zarat of Houston, who is also a major in Latin American and Latinx studies, works in charcoal, performance, and video, creating alternative spiritual spaces where migration, memory, and transformation are explored through deeply personal ritual. In each medium, he emphasizes his own body as a tool of agency and power.

“This solace in my body allows me to see it as a site of agency and power. These different mediums allow me to depict and transform the suffering and the pain into works of a divine quality, always moving and charged with energy.

“I push myself to a space of explosive vulnerability, a place where I can dream outside of myself and create semi-deities that function as archetypes to personal and shared feelings. Whether strong or wounded, the figures in my work stand tall, fully enveloped in either suffering, anger, or bliss, and the viewers act as witnesses to the breathing scene.”